Tatsumi's Realism

In the Introduction of "Goodbye," the author describes Tatsumi's work, an exploration of what it means to be human. He explains that Tatsumi's values art, a lens through which social issues may be examined, and furthermore, interprets Tatsumi's short stories to be an exploration of the collective human id. In reading the short stories found within "Goodbye," it became clear to me that these three aspects were essential to Tatsumi's realism. First and foremost, Tatsumi's use of limited details in illustrating his characters, create an anonymity, which allows any reader to identify with the characters and their struggles. Moreover, as I read each of the short stories, I became aware of Tatsumi's poignant depiction of mass groups. In each of the short stories, there is at least one panel, usually in the expositions, in which the audience glimpses a crowd of people, a group of birds, interlocked automobiles, etcetera. These panels serve to deemphasize the protagonist's plight as that of the individual, reinforcing that each figure is but a part of a larger mass. These panels seem to be a literal manifestation of the "collective," subliminally setting up the notion of a universal gloom, resulting in a dark representation of humanity (not of a particular circumstance or choice). Hence, although Tatsumi writes for an intended Japanese audience, his short stories are relevant across the international comic domain, since their use of realism, as a focus on the mundane as opposed to spectacle, sublimating subconscious emotions (i.e. gloom), transcend geography and culture.